One of the first issues Burlington’s City Council will tackle after the holidays will be deciding whether to increase the council to a seven-member board.

Set for the Jan. 7 council meeting, a public hearing will be held to garner residents’ thoughts on the potential restructuring, which council member Bob Ward has been bringing up since January.

“I brought it up when we did our goals and objectives last January,” Ward said.

“I did a little research on it myself,” he said, stating that he’d looked at other cities Burlington’s size — with populations between 50,000 and 100,000 — and most had seven or nine council members.

“Almost 89 percent have seven council members,” Ward said.

He again raised the matter in April, and for a third time in September — when the rest of the council agreed to set a date of public hearing for the new year.

Ward maintains the reason he wants a public hearing is to get citizen input on the issue, “and then after that the City Council will determine what direction to go in.”

In September, Ward had said, “I hear from time to time that certain people are not represented. … I think logic would conclude that the more people you have on the council, the more input you’re going to have, there’s going to be more representation.”

Mayor Pro Tem David Huffman had responded that about five different board compositions are allowed by state legislature, and there’s the additional issue of holding partisan elections or nonpartisan elections.

Mayor Ronnie Wall had said the council could either add two members to its current council or switch to a district system of representation — which Ward said he hadn’t necessarily proposed.

Councilman Celo Faucette then said the public hearing would be a good time to look at extending the mayor’s term to four years instead of two.

Until the public hearing, though, it’s unclear what decisions, if any, will be made.

“I have no idea where it’s going,” City Manager Harold Owen said.

Ward said, “There could conceivably be a vote of some kind,” but his intention was mainly to get public opinion.

The council will hear public comments about expanding the City Council seats during the meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 7 at the Municipal Building’s council chambers, 425 S. Lexington Ave.